It is known in the art to use an iced saline slush for cooling organs during surgery. As used herein, the term "organ" is intended to refer to any animal body element that is cooled during surgery.
In one known cooling system, the slush is prepared one day prior to surgery. Two sterile plastic bags are introduced into a sterile surgical canister. The plastic bags are filled with sterile saline solution, are fastened with sterile rubber bands, capped and tape-sealed. The canister is placed in a freezer overnight. Subsequently, during surgery, the sterile plastic bags are removed from the canister by a scrub nurse and are placed on a basin on a sterile table. The iced saline within the bags is broken up with a mallet in order to provide the consistency of slush desired. The slush is then placed adjacent the organ as desired by the surgeon.
In another known cooling technique, bottles of slush solution, which have been precooled in a referigerator, are placed in a freezer in order for the solution to become supercooled. The bottles are removed from the freezer, allowed to stand at room temperature for several minutes, uncapped and the contents are poured into a sterile stainless steel bowl provided by a scrub nurse. The supercooled solution becomes slush as it hits the bowl, and the slush is used for cooling purposes.
It can be seen that in certain prior art slush techniques, the provision of sterile frozen slush in the operating room is relatively complicated. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a low cost, convenient way to provide frozen slush to the operating room.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cooling system for organs using a disposable receptacle and container and enabling the delivery of sterile slush in an efficient and relatively inexpensive manner.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.